Rouse Public on Poland, Laski Plea

November 5, 1934

London (Nov. 4)

A gloomy picture of the Jewish position and prospects in Austria, Poland and in distant Iraq, was presented today by Neville Laski, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, at the fortnightly meeting of the organization.

“The time is past when it can do any good to be complacent about the position of Austrian Jewry and to say that everything is lovely there,” declared the Anglo-Jewish leader. “At Geneva, Dr. Nahum Goldmann and I told Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg that his statement to us, avowing equality of treatment for all citizens, was not in accordance with the facts.

“As far as Poland is concerned, if we take the view that the Polish government had done everything in its power to implement the minority treaty clauses, then we say something that is untrue and useless. To blind ourselves to actualities, we would also have to deaf and dumb. We must arouse public opinion.

“In Iraq, conditions have become increasingly worse. The discrimination against the Jews there resembles that of Germany and Austria. Jews are being ousted from state and municipal employment. The Iraq government has banned all Jewish papers from outside.